NPSP is a collection of packages that customize standard Salesforce entities (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities) and add custom ones. It uses a “Household Account” model where individual constituents are Contacts grouped under a household Account record. In other words, each donor has a Contact record, and one or more Contacts can roll up to a Household Account (even if many households end up having just one Contact). Nonprofit Cloud, on the other hand, uses Person Accounts to represent individual donors. A Person Account in Salesforce is a special hybrid object that is simultaneously an Account and a Contact (one record serves as both). This means in NPC, each constituent is typically a Person Account, and “Household” accounts are not the default way to model individuals . (Household groups can still be created in NPC for grouping, but via a new Party Relationship Group object rather than as the core data model.) The shift to Person Accounts is supposed to simplify having a single record per individual and avoid the proliferation of one-contact “dummy” household accounts, however, in practice, it has largely introduced complexities with implications for compatibility and custom development (discussed below).
Nonprofit Cloud is a more comprehensive, all-in-one solution out of the box. Salesforce has packaged a suite of nonprofit capabilities into NPC – not just fundraising/donor management, but also program management, case management, grantmaking, and marketing integrations . It comes with pre-built components like the Actionable Relationship Center (ARC) for visualizing relationships among constituents (a graphical view not available in NPSP), and uses newer Salesforce tech like OmniStudio for form flows and automation. In essence, NPC “casts a wider net”: one expert described it as “a comprehensive suite of tools that cover fundraising, program management, marketing, and analytics – everything in one platform” (advancedcommunities.com), reducing the need for many add-ons to the data model, although requiring that the tools used for fundraising, programs, marketing and analytics adhere to the NPC data model, which, in theory, reduces the benefit of the objects existing out of the box. NPSP by itself is more narrowly focused on fundraising and basic CRM; many organizations on NPSP still need additional data models and even applications for things like volunteer management, advanced analytics, or marketing automation. For example, NPSP does not include a full-fledged case management or program tracking module (Salesforce offered separate add-ons like Program Management Module), whereas Nonprofit Cloud has these functions built-in with new standard objects. If the manual management of programs needs to occur in the safe interface for administrators as fundraising efforts, NPC could have the edge, however, the simplicity and scalability of the NPSP data model is difficult to walk away from.
Complexity and Customization
Because NPSP is essentially an augmentation of Sales Cloud, it’s relatively straightforward and familiar for those who know Salesforce. Its data model is considered simpler – largely centered around Contacts/Accounts for constituents and Opportunities for donations. Some nonprofits have heavily customized NPSP to fit their processes, leveraging its open-source flexibility. NPC, being a newer and more expansive product, is more complex by design. It introduces many new custom objects (when the Nonprofit Cloud license is enabled, a bundle of objects and components become available). This added complexity means there is more to learn and potentially configure. Some tasks that were simple in NPSP (like managing addresses or viewing household rollups) work differently in NPC. On the flip side, NPC’s comprehensive approach can reduce the need for building custom solutions – many things are point-and-click configurable with the provided components (though you have to learn how to use them and they still need to integrate to 3rd party tools). One comparison noted that “NPSP is highly customizable to fit your specific needs” whereas “Nonprofit Cloud’s all-in-one nature means less need (and somewhat less room) for customization” (aptaria.com). In short: NPSP might require you to add what you need (with help from the community or partners), whereas NPC gives you a lot upfront but requires you to navigate a more complex environment, but both likley need to be integrated to marketing and fundraising tools that likely adhere to the contact/account model.
Both NPSP and NPC participate in Salesforce’s Power of Us program (which provides the first 10 Salesforce licenses free to eligible nonprofits). NPSP itself is free to install on a Salesforce Enterprise or Unlimited Edition org. Nonprofit Cloud is a Salesforce “Industry” product – essentially it is a licensed solution like Sales Cloud or Service Cloud. After the free licenses, NPC has a higher per-user cost than a basic Sales Cloud license. According to Salesforce’s pricing (2025), Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise Edition is around $60 USD/user/month (and Unlimited Edition around $100/user/month). NPSP, by contrast, can be used on top of a standard Sales/Service Cloud license (which for nonprofits might be $36/user/month per Enterprise license as quoted in one example). Practically, this means an organization might pay more to use NPC – but that cost includes all the 'extra functionality', which may or may not be helpful. If you would otherwise be paying for add-ons or third-party tools with NPSP, those costs need to be weighed. Many smaller nonprofits are very budget-sensitive, making NPSP’s low cost (10 free users and low cost beyond that) extremely attractive . Larger nonprofits with more budget may find NPC’s value worth the price, especially if it replaces other paid systems. A summary from one consulting firm put it this way: “NPSP may be more cost-effective for smaller organizations, while Nonprofit Cloud could offer a better ROI for larger entities due to its extensive capabilities.”, however, based on a meta analysis of salesforce implementors, NPC impementations took 2x more billable hours to get to a usable state vs. NPSP implementations.
With NPSP’s long history, a robust community of nonprofit users and partners has grown around it. There are extensive online resources, community forums (the Power of Us Hub), and many third-party apps built to work with the NPSP data model. Nonprofit Cloud being newer has the official backing of Salesforce’s support and product teams (since it’s a current Salesforce product), but a smaller community knowledge base so far. For example, many payment processors and integrations were built for NPSP and may not yet be compatible with NPC out of the box. Salesforce and partners are rapidly updating connectors for NPC, but if your org relies on a specific app, you’d need to confirm NPC support. On the flip side, NPC users benefit from direct Salesforce support (as part of the licensing) and can leverage knowledge from other industries because the components are more universal. Cloud for Good, a prominent Salesforce partner, notes that many of their clients are choosing the new Nonprofit Cloud to “stay at the forefront of innovation” and take advantage of features proven in other sectors (since NPC is built with interchangeable components from across Salesforce industries) but struggling to see the benefit. In summary: NPSP has a decade of community solutions and Q&A to draw on, whereas NPC is newer with Salesforce’s investment behind it but less community maturity (for now), while also receiving some rejection from the community.
Current State vs Future State
Salesforce has made it clear that new feature development will focus on Nonprofit Cloud moving forward, though NPSP will continue to be supported and receive bug fixes. This means that over time, the innovation gap will grow – NPC will get the latest and greatest (including AI-driven features, new analytics, etc.), while NPSP will remain relatively static. However, NPSP is a proven, stable solution and Salesforce has no end-of-life date announced; they’ve even continued minor updates and still offer NPSP to new customers who specifically request it. For a nonprofit investing in Salesforce now, this raises a strategic question: implement the older but reliable NPSP, or go with the forward-looking NPC which might better serve future needs? Many organizations that are already on NPSP are taking a cautious approach – “if it isn’t broken, no immediate rush to change”. But Salesforce.org sales teams are aggressively pushing NPC with 2x+ license price tags (and larger commission checks). A pragmatic take by Arkus Inc. is: If you’re a smaller org and NPSP meets your needs today, you can stick with it for now (it’s cost-effective and solid). But if you want to future-proof and leverage advanced capabilities, especially as a larger org, NPC is a good choice – just be prepared for a more complex implementation. Both options can be successful, but there are very few real 'features' that end users will miss between NPC and NPSP today.
